Love, Victor season 1 finale cliffhanger, explained

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Love, Victor's season 1 finale, "Spring Fling."

After a season of soul searching, Victor (Michael Cimino) finally made the decision to come out to his family in the season 1 finale of Love, Victor.

Hulu's Love, Simon spin-off series ended its first season with Victor telling his parents that he's gay after almost losing the nerve to come out to them when they told him they were separating. He started to walk towards his room, but then he took a deep breath, turned around, and came out, having been inspired by his trip to New York, which resulted in him coming out to his best friend Felix (Anthony Turpel). The finale ended on that major milestone for Victor in a tight close-up on his face, but without showing how his parents reacted to the news.

Meanwhile, Victor also made some big decisions (both good and bad) regarding his friendships in the finale. He took his girlfriend Mia (Rachel Hilson) to the school dance to give her one last perfect night together before telling her the truth about his sexuality. But at the dance, he ended up kissing his crush Benji (George Sear) who had just broken up with his boyfriend so they could be together. Unfortunately, Mia saw the whole thing and left in tears with Andrew (Mason Gooding).

EW spoke to Love, Victor showrunners Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, along with series star Cimino, and got them to break down that cliffhanger, what it means for season 2, and more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: It was such a relief when Victor came out to his parents at the end of the finale — for a moment there it seemed like he wasn't going to follow through on his commitment to coming out.

MICHAEL CIMINO: I know, how amazing was that? How the season ends on that particular moment, it leads into an amazing opportunity to tell a great story in the second season. It leaves you on a moment that really signifies a big change in Victor's life. He is now entering a new phase in his life in the second season. He is a changed person from this point forward.

Why was it important to have him come out to his family in the finale instead of putting off that moment any longer?

ELIZABETH BERGER: It felt really important to us from a character standpoint that he get to say those words out loud. We think that's a big part of Victor's journey throughout the season. He obviously is such a good kid and someone that's so desperate to please and has gotten used to playing the role of putting his family first and putting his parents first, and he really needs to tell them in that moment what's been going on with him. We just see it as such growth that he's able to say, "No, actually I'm not going to put this giant thing I'm going through on hold, I'm going to tell you how I feel." So that felt really satisfying to us to get him to that place in episode 10.

ISAAC APATAKER: When we sold the show we didn't do a traditional pilot, we sold it straight to series which kind of required us to think about what these 10 episodes would really be, almost like if they were a long movie. So we always knew the endpoint for these first 10 — which were really about Victor coming to terms with who he is — was him declaring that to his family.

What does this cliffhanger mean for season 2?

BERGER: That will be a huge thrust of the second season. Our season 2 writers room is actually hard at work already breaking these stories and that is just a gigantic piece of the season. What happens? We don't get to see Isabel [Ana Ortiz] and Armando [James Martinez] after he says that, so what happens next in that conversation? And what happens in the days that follow? Obviously, they are from a very specific background culturally and it is fair to say that it's really going to be something that they're going to be grappling with throughout our entire second season. In the same way that the Simon [Nick Robinson] plotline in the movie [between he] and his mom — played so beautifully by Jennifer Garner — resonated with a lot of people… the story we’re telling between Victor and his mother Isabel, hopefully, while different, will also resonate. It's a really complex story, but there's a lot of love behind it and a lot of people trying to meet each other in the middle and march forward with their relationships.

How far into season 2 have you got planned already?

APTAKER: We're writing episode 5 of the second season right now. It's pretty planned out. We don't know when we'll be able to make it because of corona, of course, and we're waiting on a formal order from Hulu, but we're very optimistic.

Will there be a time jump when season 2 picks up?

APTAKER: We are definitely going to see the rest of that scene right where we cut out. We wouldn't want to deny the audience that. It feels like you're just begging for the camera to turn around, so we'll kick off right where we left off.

Obviously, Victor has a lot to deal with if the show gets renewed for a second season, not just with his family but also with Mia and Benji and the fallout from his actions. What do you want to see from a second season of Love, Victor?

CIMINO: What I would really love to see is the exploration of Victor and Benji's relationship and what that flourishes into. High school relationships are kind of like a journey of self-exploration in many ways. When you are in high school, you don't really know who you are and dating is part of finding out who you are. Unfortunately, he did hurt Mia but he was just trying to discover who he was. I would really like to see if Mia could ever forgive Victor for what happened, and if Victor can ever forgive himself for what happened. I'm really excited to see what happens with his family and how they react. And I would really like to conquer some more political issues, injustices in the LGBTQ community that really need to be discussed.

BERGER: We have a lot of plot threads to not tie up but continue. One of the great things about doing this as a show this time around is you just have more time to dig into the different chapters of the journey. Obviously, coming out as a young gay man is only one of the chapters, but then there's how you get to live your life afterwards and how everyone in your life responds to it and what the next steps in your identity journey look like. We're really excited to say as a show: That was one part of his journey and now the journey continues with this march towards really finding himself and living fully in his identity. We feel there are many more chapters to tell in this story.

APTAKER: You always hear people say, "Why do so many LGBTQ stories feature this coming out narrative?" And what's so great about this is it's not a movie, it's a series. So we just started at the very beginning, and that, for Victor, is coming to terms with and deciding what his sexuality is. But we hope to carry this all the way through and we get a great coming-of-age love story for a character who just happens to be gay.

What are you most excited to explore with this series as it moves past this major moment in Victor's life?

APTAKER: I'm excited to get to age the show up a little bit along with our characters. I think about all the TV shows that I grew up loving like Boy Meets World and you started with the kids when they were early high school and you stayed with them and watched them grow and mature along with their audience. Our characters are going to be juniors next year, a lot of them are going to be in relationships, which means we can start sort of looking at what that means, who's sleeping together, and just get to a little bit more of a mature high school place.

Love, Victor season 1 is now streaming on Hulu.

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